A meeting recently celebrated in Hong Kong organized by IESE concluded that inclusion and diversity contribute to innovation in business

Nuria Chinchilla, professor of the University of Navarra Business School IESE, inaugurated the round table developed in Hong Kong called “Breaking the crystal ceiling – empowering female directors-“. The event was organized by IESE with the collaboration of Hong Kong’s General Chamber of Trade and the Generalitat of Cataluña.

During the meeting several issues were discussed, including the balance between professional careers and family for women, women’s access to political and corporate leading roles and other topics that are particularly sensitive for the Asian culture.

Professor Chinchilla was emphatic about the importance of women in businesses. “We are very different from men and our qualities are complementary to theirs. Companies cannot ignore this fact. Gender diversity and different cultural perspectives stimulate innovation”.

She talked about the so called “crystal ceiling” and said that “women have to break two ceilings: one made of crystal and another made of cement”. According to her vision “the crystal glass is an obstacle for progress originated in the structures run by men. Though it is an unconscious bias, men tend to hire other men”.

Clearly, this is an obstacle for women’s professional careers. The specialist warned that this mentality has an influence in the recruiting process, as well as in training, evaluations, internal promotions and payments.

“The cement ceiling is very different, thicker and harder to break. It is self-imposed and characterized by aspects such as fear towards failure, low self-esteem, perfectionism, or poor development of networking and negotiation skills”, said Chinchilla.

“IESE’s Corporate Family Responsibility index helps promoting women within companies”, said the specialist and she stated that “companies that use the index commit to promoting flexible leadership and enhance conciliation culture and policies, an initiative that also enables work-life balance. This humane model allows them to be more productive, competitive, responsible, inclusive and sustainable.”

Executives working in Asia shared their experiences with the public. These are stories of women who dared to break both ceilings without giving up their personal lives.

“By the age of ten I was an immigrant”, recalled Cindy Cheng, General Director of SOS in Hong Kong and Macao and vice-president of the Women Executives Club of Hong Kong’s General Chamber of Trade. “I had problems with the language so I putted myself a barrier and turned to mathematics. I ended up studying computer sciences and working as a programmer, but I was never really satisfied.” Being managed by an incompetent man was the stimulus that lead her to break the cement ceiling she had built over herself due to her low self-esteem.

Despite having opportunities to fill positions of greater responsibilities in other countries, Cheng chose to remain in Hong Kong with her husband. “It may slow down my career, but family goes first for me”.

Inma Díaz, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and former IESE student, said that after earning her degree she faced the barrier of the English language when working in investment banks and made it to the top. Mother of four in an environment where work-life balance is very hard to be achieved.

“I was once told that luck is looking for opportunities, persevering and making bigger efforts”, said Mari Kuchinishi, Responsible for supervising operational risks and permanent controls at BNP Paribas for Japan and the Asia Pacific area. Her personal barrier was raising two kids, one of whom had health problems, without having the support of caretakers or relatives while working full-time at JP Morgan. Her key is “always having a plan B and generating reasons to justify every decision made”.

Interesting experiences of Asia Pacific to consider in Latin America.